What we really want

Don't go shopping for Mother's Day. We don't want you to spend your hard earned money on stuff we'll have to take care of or clean up after.

What we really want is for you to show us you appreciate us every day, by how you live. How you treat us. How you treat others.

Just show some responsibility. Keep your own space orderly, keep your own appearance, keep your grades/job. Show up when you are expected, leave while you're still welcome.

It's not that much to ask is it?

Sadly, it's easier for most folks to buy flowers and call it good.

Speaking of the food issue,

this is what I'd like to go for:


I found this website today to help me learn more about pruning tomatoes:
Fine Gardening

The Food Issue

Talking to some other moms about trying to get kids to eat-- one suggested I post some of my recipes on my blog, or start a blog. While it sounds like fun, the truth is that the market is saturated with such resources. I encourage you to try your google finger and go for it. Some of my favorite things I've found is moms who are using the new, brightly colored silicone muffin pans or muffin cups to serve fun finger foods or regular old meals to their kids. The kids of course eat the food because of the new and exciting packaging.

One of my favorite Web Magazines is doing a two week series on all things kid and food related. Getting this news in my inbox today makes me really glad I didn't spend a lot of time trying to create this myself: They have a great staff who has done a fantastic job, I'm sure. Go check it out if you have any interest in anything kid or food related! And don't be holding your breath for me to come out with anything to compete with it.

Willingness to Accept New Ideas Contradicts Religion

I am often looked at a bit cross-eyed. Atheist and agnostic friends can't figure me out-- I'm sort of like religious, but not totally what they expect of a religious person. Religious friends- Christian or other religion- think I must be irreligious because I subscribe to humanistic relativity (as far as they can see). That is, I question things.

When I am willing to investigate "Old Earth Creationism" I must not be Christian enough. When I am willing to read and study evolution, I am certainly not Christian enough. When I choose a secular science text over a right-wing Christian science text, I am not Christian enough. When I wonder why the civil matter of state-recognized marriage is an issue, I am not Christian enough. If I vote believing there is more to politics than abortion or gay marriage-or *gasp* the abortion and gay marriage argument doesn't belong in politics, I am not Christian enough. Jesus didn't hang with the religious folks, y'all. He spent his time pissing them off, frankly. He got down with the prostitutes, the tax collectors (stealers).... and with children. The religious people hated him. And he hated religious people~

I hear about being open-minded. It's worth hearing out the "open-minded" argument, and mulling over. Put it up against the Gospel, which is: there is one God and He made the world and allowed free thought and will, then provided an "out" by sending part of himself- his Son- to be the sacrifice to cover the choice to try to live without God. All you have to do is admit that yeah, life sucks without God and eternity will suck even more without God, and I'd really like not to Free Will choose to live without. I'd like to quit screwing around with thinking I can be God, and I'd really like to let Him have at it, because I am sure He can do a better job than I can. Academics talk a lot about EVIDENCE to back up what you believe. I feel that there is sufficient evidence for biblical canon- it is an older, more traceable document than The Illiad, or Socrates or Plato and I don't hear the scholars dismissing those. Anyhow. Here is a video I found this week on being open-minded.

RAIN!

It's been a rain day here. We seem to be having so many of them~ it's really wonderful. I only wish I could keep more of it. We still only have one 55 gallon drum for holding rainwater. (We have to bail it when it fills, and it's still raining. It did fill today; we had to take out about 12 gallons because it started to overflow.)

Yes it is in the middle of the porch. This feeds it:

I've decided I really need to get something done about a rainwater harvest system before the rain stops and the dry season begins. I think I could harvest at least 1000 gallons if I had the capacity. There is a gorgeous system but expensive; I found a hack system too. Guess which one I'll end up with? :) More on that later, but I think it's a project for our homeschool.
Before the rain came Jeff and John got most of the new fence up.


Jeff was quite shocked when, on Easter Sunday, a motorist (assuming someone who lives nearby) stopped and chased Jeff up the driveway and chewed him out for putting up the fence. The guy yelled at Jeff that we were "spiccin' out the neighborhood." Wow. I mean, just wow. Remember my post from a couple weeks ago? The fence we ultimately chose to copy is not a cheap fence. I guess that guy never reads Dwell.

Our chickens have doubled in size again. To wit:
March 20....................... April 9..........................April 17!!!

Love.... Exciting and New....

My emaginary friend Kelly writes a blog called Love Lasts a Lifetime (*link fixed). It is a Christ-centered marriage blog that I enjoy reading and learning from. Go visit Kelly's blog and watch your romance blossom!

(Note: it is possible if you use Dan's Guardian as I do, or some other 'Net Filter, that her site will be blocked. Go to your filter and specifically allow her blog through-- and then keep it bookmarked where your kids won't find it. Your husband will thank you. Oh, but get your husband to read it too, especially when Doug posts.)


P. S. Stuff 4 Ya'll is written by a homeschool mom in my church. She does a GREAT job of keeping up with every freebie you could ever imagine and many you can't believe!

You think you are above Christ?

Americans really don't get how messed up they are.

Most of the Religious Right with whom I keep acquaintance continually moan about how Obama is bringing about the worst financial hardship they've ever known. They suffer for it- they'll fight to keep what they see as comfort, and condemn everything Mr. President stands for that serves to inconvenience them. There is a Tea Party tomorrow, about which I have a lagging interest- moreso a curiosity to stand on the sidelines and try to figure out just what should be accomplished. Civil disobedience and rebellion is the way of the U. S. But for such rebellion the U. S. would not exist. I can "get" it. I have a rebellious streak a mile wide, and will usually buck the system simply for the sake of bucking. Just to see who I can throw.

What I believe is that those in the U. S. are whiny, spoiled, self-loving seekers of personal comfort and material wealth. There. I said it. Many things I have read and studied lately reinforce this belief. How dare you, U. S. Christian/Religious Right radical, stand and complain that your rights are being violated by this "socialist" President. How dare you whine that you are suffering. What do you know of suffering? The Chinese Christian can tell you about suffering. The Christians in North Korea can tell you about suffering. The Christians in Sudan can tell you about suffering. You live in an air-conditioned and heated home, with plentiful food, refrigeration, and material wealth that can astound the richest Christians from almost any other country in the world. And you whine that Obama will make you suffer.

Oh, that I could suffer. That I could even begin to understand what suffer means. To suffer would mean to live as the Christ. To know Him more fully than ever in my life. To depend on Him more fully than I've ever begun to need him.

Christ Himself tells us to obey even ungodly authority. The examples of disobedience to ungodly authority have nothing to do with a person's financial security but to the command of a holy God who will hold you up through any suffering.

authority. suffering. like Jesus. Christus Exemplar.

For more reading and studying:
Study on money and Christianity
Letting the Joneses win

Waste Free Wednesday

I met a lovely woman I've known for years last weekend when I gathered with some other Sonlight Moms in San Antonio for the Big Friend Meetup 09. This woman, Carletta, has published a FREE e-book called 101 Ways to Save Money on Homeschooling. This is the best time of year I could have possibly seen this e-book, as curriculum catalogs come in the mail tempting me with their wares. Don't Waste in homeschooling, check out Carletta's e-book!

I had set aside all the drywall we pulled down during remodeling; it was stacked near my compost. It's a great "brown" material, enriching the soil with needed calcium and keeping the pungent odor of composting greens to imperceptible levels. I spent this last week laying out larger pieces of the drywall over an area of my yard that is under-used and out of control every year with weeds. Then I had the boys help bring buckets of our old-ash-tree-mulch to cover over it. Waste not!

The idea is that by next year these materials should be well composted, right there on the bed, and should have smothered out the weeds. I'd think that next year I can make a real good raised bed here. The edge of this area is railroad ties, so this area will only be suitable for ornamentals, I believe.

I need to do more research about how long treated lumber is unsafe- I have a bit of wood from ripping out our old kitchen, and I'd like to use it for building my new chicken coop-- yes, you read chicken coop. For a while I've been wishing we had chickens again, because they would also help keep down the amount of greens in my compost. They'd also be valuable for enriching my gardening soil. Not to mention a great source of fresh eggs and meat for my family- while I'd prefer veganism, my family prefer to be omnivores. So how come no one has ever told me about GARDEN GIRL before???? I will be spending many quality hours with Garden Girl. I wish I'd seen this a long time ago! Someone else who wants to live in the city and urban-homestead. I knew I wasn't crazy for loving the city! I am now subscribed to her vodcasts too, and will be adding time in my schedule to bring myself under Garden Girl's tutelage.

Distractions

Pizza night is SO much easier with our new kitchen layout.



Sorry I haven't been posting much. I have gardening, spring cleaning, the last quarter of homeschool, my son's spring training for football....



and an emaginary friend from the SL forums introduced me to Easy Star All Stars covering Pink Floyd in reggae. What a hoot!


Goodnight!